Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
What is fame?
Why is someone famous in his or her own time?
Why do some of those same individuals continue to be famous while others fade into history?
How do you come to be so admired by your friends and public alike that everyone knows you by a nickname that pays homage and honestly describes you all at once? Magic Johnson, Billy the Kid, Honest Abe, Papa Haydn
How did the son of a wheelwright and a cook from a small rural village come to be considered by music scholars as one of the most prolific and influential composers in western music? Why was Haydn so beloved that he came to be known as Papa?
There are many aspects of fame and how it relates to culture. In our discussion here we are going to look at three aspects - talent, circumstance and genius.
Talent
A natural?Unlike many great musicians Haydn was not born into a musical family. Born in 1732 in the little Austrian village of Rohrau, Haydn or Sepperl, as his family knew him, was a bright and mischievous boy. His parents worked in the service of Count Harrach and instilled in their children neatness, cleanliness, piety, self-discipline, a taste for work and a taste for music - all attributes that would serve Haydn well for his entire life. His father, having taught himself to play a harp, would gather the family around him each evening and play while the children sang. It was during such an evening that a cousin, Johann Matthias Frank, a schoolmaster and organist in a nearby town, was impressed by Sepperl's "weak but pleasant voice" and suggested he come and live with him to study music. And so, not quite six years old, Haydn set off on his life's journey.
After two years with his cousin, he was heard by Karl Georg Reutter, musical director of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. Impressed with Haydn's beautiful voice and precocity, Reutter invited him to join the choir. Though seen by some as a glamorous life, it was hard work. Literally singing for their supper, the boys sang for daily church services and, on request, at the homes of the Viennese nobility, where they were then allowed to eat the banquet leftovers. The boys were taught at the church school, studying the usual school subjects and harmony and counterpoint, the basic musical education one would need to sing the church liturgy. Haydn spent clothing money on music and books about music, and even though the choir director made fun of him, managed to teach himself how to compose.
At 17, with his voice changed, Haydn's love of practical jokes gave Reutter the excuse he was looking for to kick him out of the choir. Haydn found himself on the streets with three shirts to his name and not a penny in his pocket. Discovered shivering on a park bench, a kind, older singer who had once sang solos with the choir took Haydn in and showed him how to make a living through his music.
Circumstance
Right place at the right time?As we look at how fame relates to culture, we must understand the time in which talent lives. Haydn came into the musical arena at a time when the elaborate ornamentation of the late Baroque period and its florid presentations were about to result in the natural reaction that led to the restraint and reason of Classicism. Based on the ideals of Ancient Greece and Rome, the Classical period (1750-1820) stressed the importance of symmetry and form in the arts. Emotional content was still present, but it was never allowed to obscure the clarity and formal structure of the music. The Classical period has been called the "Golden Age of Music" because it was at this time that the major forms of Classical music - the symphony, concerto, sonata, and string quartet - were fully developed. One of the leaders in this development was Haydn.
After being sent packing onto the streets, Haydn spent many years living in the garrets of Venice, making little money, giving music lessons and refining his talent for composition writing for open-air musical performances, known as "serenades." During this time, he established a set of characteristics that continued to define his work: a pervasive invigorating joy; a taste for surprise effects, for unexpected twists and jumps that would delight his audience, and a profound knowledge of the practical capabilities of each of the instruments in the orchestra.
Fate stepped in once again when, after gaining some recognition, Haydn obtained the position of music master to the family of the Baron von Furnberg. While in his service, Haydn wrote what is perhaps the first genuine string quartet ever written. Until this time, most works for four stringed instruments depended on a keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord to furnish harmonic underpinning. His string quartets have become an essential part of the chamber music repertory.
Genius
Comes easy or just hard work?The body of Haydn's work was created after he turned 28 and accepted a position with the Esterhazy family, with whom he remained employed for the next 30 years. It is, perhaps, the unique combination of Haydn's talent, the opportunity found in this lengthy engagement, and the work ethic he was given by his parents that allowed Haydn to produce one of the most extensive catalogues of any composer. In his more than 500 existing works (countless others were lost to the ages), he defined the symphony and the quartet as we know them today, and it is for this reason that many consider him the father of these two classical forms.
At the Esterhazy estate, Haydn not only established himself as one of the defining composers of the Classical form, he acquired the nickname that came to define him not just for his own time, but all time. Certainly, it was his job to not only compose but to oversee up to 22 musicians who comprised the house orchestra. However, whether it was because he remembered what it was like to be in the ensemble when he was a child or because he had no children of his own, he treated his musicians so well that they began to call him "Papa Haydn." It did not end with his own musicians as he set out to nurture young composers (two of his students were Mozart and Beethoven), and he was known to be generous beyond a fault in sharing his gifts and talents.